Table 1.
Characteristics of the selected studies
| Author | Year | Country | Study Design | Drugs | Population | Outcomes | Sample Size | Age | Treatment Group (n) | Control (n) | Follow up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abd-Elsalam et al | 2020 t | Egypt | Randomized controlled trial. | Hydroxychloroquine 400 mg twice daily (in day 1) followed by 200 mg tablets twice daily Vs standard care | Hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Mechanical ventilation and clinical recovery | 175 | All Population 40.72 ± 19.32 HCQ group 40.35 ± 18.65 Control group 41.09 ± 20.07 |
97 | 97 | 28 days |
| Boulware et al | 2020 | USA and Canada | Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial | Hydroxychloroquine (800 mg once, followed by 600 mg for 4 days) Vs placebo | Adults exposed to confirmed covid-19 patients | Risk of infection, risk of hospitalization or death, severity of symptoms | 821 | HCQ group 41 (33–51)* Placebo group 40 (32–50)* |
414 | 407 | 14 days |
| Cavalcanti et al. | 2020 | Brazil | Multicenter, randomized, open-label, three-group, controlled trial | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg twice daily) or hydroxychloroquine (400 mg twice daily) plus azithromycin (500 mg once daily) Vs standard care | Hospitalized patients with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 | Survival, adverse effects, need mechanical ventilation, kidney and thromboembolic complications | 665 | 50.3 ± 16.6 | HCQ group 221 HCQ + Azi group 217 |
227 | 15 days |
| Chen Jun et al. | 2020 | China | Randomized controlled trial. | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg twice daily) Vs standard care | Patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Time for negative RT-PCR, and adverse effects. | 30 | HCQ 50,5 ± 3,8 Control group 46,7 ± 3,6 |
15 | 15 | 7 days |
| Chen Cheng et al | 2020 | Taiwan | Randomized controlled trial. | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg followed by 200 mg) Vs standard care | Adults patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Negative RT-PCR, and clinical recovery | 33 | All Population 32.9 ± 10.7 HCQ group 33.0 ± 12 Control group 32.8 ± 8.3 |
21 | 12 | 14 days |
| Horby et al. (RECOVERY Group) | 2020 | UK | Multicenter, randomized, open-label, controlled trial | Hydroxychloroquine (800 mg followed by 400 mg) Vs usual care | Hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Death, time to discharge from hospital, mechanical ventilation, adverse effects | 4716 | HCQ group 65.2 ± 15.2 Control group = 65.4 ± 15.4 |
1561 | 3155 | 28 days |
| Huang et al. | 2020 | China | Randomized, open-label, controlled trial | Chloroquine (500 mg twice daily) Vs lopinavir/ritonavir (400/100 mg twice daily) | Hospitalized patients with confirmed covid-19 | Time to negative RT-PCR, clinical recovery and time of hospital discharge | 22 | All Population 44.0 (36.5–57.5)* CQ group 41.5 (33.8–50.0)* Control group 53.0 (41.8–63.5)* |
10 | 12 Lopinavir/Ritonavir |
10 days |
| Lyngbakken et al. | 2020 | Norway | Randomized, open-label, controlled trial | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg twice daily) Vs standard care | Hospitalized patients with confirmed covid-19 | SARS-CoV-2 viral load, adverse events, mortality at 30 days, and clinical status | 53 | All Population 62.0 (50–73)* HCQ group 56.0 (41–72)* Control group 69.0 (51–74)* |
27 | 26 | 30 days |
| Self et al | 2020 | USA | Multicenter, blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg twice daily for 2 doses, then 200 mg twice daily for 8 doses) Vs placebo | Adults hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 | Clinical status and mortality | 479 | HCQ group 58 (45–69)* Control group 57 (43–68)* |
242 | 237 | 28 days |
| Skipper et al | 2020 | USA | Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial | Hydroxychloroquine (800 mg once, followed by 600 mg in 6 to 8 hours, then 600 mg daily for 4 more days) Vs placebo | Symptomatic, non-hospitalized adults with laboratory- confirmed COVID-19 or probable COVID-19 and high-risk expo- sure within 4 days of symptom onset. | Severity disease and adverse events | 423 | HCQ group 41 (33–49)* Control group 39 (31–50)* |
212 | 211 | 14 days |
| Tang et al. | 2020 | China | Multicenter, open label randomized controlled trial. | Hydroxychloroquine (1,200 mg daily for three days followed by 800 mg) Vs standard care | Hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Time to negative RT-PCR, clinical recover and adverse events of treatment | 150 | All Population 46.1 ± 14.7 HCQ group 48.0 ± 14.1 Control group 44.1 ± 15.0 |
75 | 75 | 23 days |
| Zhaowei Chen et al. | 2020 | China | Randomized clinical trial | Hydroxychloroquine (400 mg daily) Vs standard care | Patients with confirmed COVID-19 | Time to clinical recover | 62 | All population 44,7 ± 15,3 HCQ group = 44,1 ± 16,1 Control group 45,2 ± 14,7 |
31 | 31 | 24 days |
COVID-19, coronavirus disease; CQ, chloroquine; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; HCQ+Azi, hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin;
*data represented by median (IQR). Other age data represented by the mean (SD).